Clay Martin of Off The Reservation talks about the simple aspect of a shooting stance. He also brings up the type of pants one wears while shooting. Now while he doesn’t actually draw attention to it or even mention it out loud, his message is clear. It is along the same lines as Dave Spaulding’s thoughts on Gear Gap. You can read about that here.

Shooting stance is not that important. Many people have demonstrated that it is possible to shoot and hit things in awkward stances. What most people do is get too comfortable with their shooting stance. This even applies to shooting positions. I was at a USPSA match and a competitor was trying to get other shooters to sign up for his long distance AR class. Where he teaches you to shoot 400 yards with a red dot. I asked him what kind of shooting positions and how big were the targets. They are all torso sized steel at different distances and you can shoot any position you want but most people tend to shoot from prone. I then start to think about all the uncomfortable positions I have had to shoot 100-400+ yard steel targets during FNH USA 3Gun matches. Not only are you forced to shoot that far without a stable position to fire from but you are on a time constraint and the long distance targets are not your only concern. For example one stage had the shooters shoot from a shooting box that was 2ft square. You cannot have any part of your body touching the ground outside this box. In the box is part of a boat trailer tongue. With a 2×2″ square metal tube sticking straight up. You can try and shoot off hand at 200-400 yard steel or squat and try to use the boat tongue as a shooting platform. It is as uncomfortable as you can imagine. Also these targets range from gopher sized poppers up to 12″ gongs and for the furthest targets an ipsc torso. It is challenging and yet people manage to get hits on target without the use of bipods or even a decent shooting stance.

aint nobody got time for that!

Shooting stance can help but what works for some does not work for all and it does not always work for all scenarios. Practice being uncomfortable if you can do so safely. Many shooters get into the habit of being comfortable and into a routine. By doing so you do not progress as a shooter. Sitting at a bench or shooting in one position repeatedly is great for that sole task but does not help much when you are forced outside your comfort level.